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Money, money, money!

I have been told that I am a bit old fashioned in many ways. I hold doors open to let ladies through before me. I think the 1970s were cool and I still prefer to carry cash with me for those small value transactions such as paying for parking or buying a coffee. So it came as no surprise, really, to read today that here in the UK as many as 60 bank branches are closing every month.

One of the reasons that this is no surprise is because I don’t see the younger generations carrying cash the same way my generation used to (or still do for that matter). Buying a coffee – flash the debit card; buying a bite of lunch – use your watch; parking the car for a couple of hours – pay with your phone. With the widespread adoption and acceptance of contactless transactions, cash is almost becoming redundant! It has now been confirmed that last year in the UK the number of debit card transactions overtook the number of cash payments for the first time. It might just be my imagination, but I even think that the queue at the ATM seems shorter than it used to be.

Our reliance on non-cash payments (cards, phones, wearables, bionic implants -well, maybe not yet….) has increased exponentially over the past few years and consequently our dependence and trust in the background technology such as secure readers and processing has increased to keep pace. And yet, we hear horror stories about people with ‘rogue’ card readers simply walking up to us and taking money from our cards without us knowing! How can this be?

Keeping card readers secure is so important. I watched a short video recently from Australia that showed just how easy it was for a thief to substitute a tampered POS terminal for a genuine one. It literally took seconds. As devices get smaller, stealing them seems to get easier.

How can this be prevented? Easy, really. The reader needs to be accessible to the customer, so secure it with a Tailwind stand.Unlike most stands that simply just lift the payment device off the counter, Tailwind payment terminal stands are all designed to hold the reader so that they are convenient for the customer, cannot be easily stolen, tampered with or damaged. Additional security such as locks or steel tethers can also be added if required.

Pink Floyd’s iconic Dark Side of the Moon album had a song called Money with the line

Written by Barry Meiklejohn

Barry Meiklejohn is Head of Sales for EMEA at Tailwind Solutions. He's a veteran of the payment industry and a global businessman with a strong interest in security at Point of Sale, PCI compliance and getting it right for the customer.